Happy New Year

Do you do New Year Resolutions? I am 50/50 about them. I quite like to have a plan for the coming year, although I never go so far as to actually write it down on paper. It's more a New Year Aspiration than a Resolution. My hopes and aims for 2017 are:

I'd like to come up with some new baby onesie designs. Rainbow star was my favourite onesie design of 2016, hopefully I can come up with something just as cute.

Never mind lose weight and get fit and all that usual, non-specific stuff. My aim for 2017 is to do my food prep. I always eat better when I take a couple of hours each week to actually prepare a load of food in advance. And when I eat better, I feel better. I found this post over at Hungry Healthy Happy particularly inspiring, though I've never quite reached such awesome levels of organisation. I can but dream. Dannii also writes about eating well on a budget, which was just as useful.

Dannii's amazing, healthy food prep!

Resist the temptation to cut my hair until it reaches the magic length which means I can donate it to the Little Princess Trust. This charity makes and provides wigs free of charge to children who need them due to cancer treatments and other illnesses. I donated my hair a couple of years ago and think it's a really worthwhile cause that uses a resource that would otherwise just end up in the bin. I've had one hair trim in the past two years to help me get there, and I'm itching to get a major chop, but I will resist for at least another 6 months. I'm too chicken to have my hair less than shoulder length, so I need to crow it pretty long to accomplish a decent length of donation. 7 inches is the minimum requirement but the longer the better!

Slightly odd photo but here's what happened at my last big haircut.
I felt so bald afterwards, even though I still had shoulder length hair.

Christmas Baby Dilemmas

This Christmas will be Baby A's first Christmas, and while that is very exciting, it is throwing up lots of new, little dilemmas that never occurred to me before I had children.


The Tree

Our living room isn't very big - none of our rooms are. Our house is the opposite of open plan. Generally, we quite like it that way since we enjoy not having cooking smells in the living room or hearing the TV while in the dining room. But it's always been a squeeze to fit our not enormous Christmas tree in the living room. And this year we have the added problem of also fitting in a fire guard, a play pen, lots of toys and a very mobile, inquisitive child who does not yet understand the word 'danger'. I am pretty sure he will try to pull himself up on the tree, if not climb it. Tinsel and baubles will be stolen, played with, eaten, hidden. I was pondering not putting one up this year, but I really would like to. I'm just anticipating playing tree police for much of the festive season.

Presents

Call me Scrooge, but I don't see the point in giving loads of presents to an 11 month old. He doesn't know what Christmas is, he won't remember it, and he'll probably be far more interested in the paper and empty boxes than any presents themselves. Plus as mentioned, we don't have an enormous house. I'm very grateful for any gifts he may receive from doting grandparents, but I'm also wondering where on earth we're going to store all this stuff. I've become depressingly practical! So with all that in mind, I haven't actually bought Baby A anything for Christmas. Mean Mummy! He won't be totally ignored on Christmas Day though. I am knitting him a cuddly toy so we have something to give him. Partly because I would like to have something with his name on under our tree and something I can say was his 'first Christmas present', but mostly because I've enjoyed learning to knit it. Everyone is happy!

I might have to make this now.

The Christmas Show

Baby A attends nursery one day a week. It is attached to a primary school and every child, including the ones in nursery, have been invited to participate in the school's Christmas Show. At 11 months old, I'm not quite sure what Baby A would be doing, since he cannot be trusted to even sit in the same spot for more than 2 seconds. But it doesn't matter because the show isn't happening on his nursery day and I don't have any spare holidays left to take an afternoon off work to watch him be held by someone else on stage. I would quite like to, but it seems somewhat ridiculous when he's still so young and oblivious. The only thing that saddens me is he would have been dressed as a Christmas pudding. I'm tempted to make my own Christmas pudding outfit for him, just because it would have been so cute! In fact here is a tutorial for a Christmas pudding hat because why not?


Christmas Cards

I have a relatively short Christmas card list usually. I send them to close family and the odd friend that lives far away but who I correspond with regularly. It hasn't changed in years. I definitely know everyone on my list. But this year, nursery sent home a list of all the children in Baby A's room, as well as all the staff. There's only 15 or so children in his age range as it's a small place, but I think I am supposed to do Christmas cards for them all, even though I don't have a clue who most of them are. And of course neither does Baby A, being 11 months old and all. At the moment he is far more interested in porridge than other children. Does everyone join in with this? Will I be judged for not participating? Will I forever be referred to as the Scrooge mother? I didn't expect all this so soon! I guess this is good practice for when he attends actual school. I will be a Christmas card pro by then (she hopes).

The Lost Gardens of Heligan with a baby

One of my favourite outings we did while in Cornwall recently was the Lost Gardens of Heligan. This large garden is on the south coast near Mevagissey. It used to be a huge and beautiful country estate which fell to into ruin after most of the staff left to fight in the war and never came back. It was rediscovered in the early 90's and brought back to its former glory. And glorious it is too!

My husband is massively green fingered, but even if you aren't, it's a beautiful place to walk around. There is a mix of formal gardens, vegetable gardens, woodland, fields, more wild bits, play areas and a pond in the valley.

There was an almost endless array of flowers. We went mid May but I expect there's plenty to see throughout the season. There were lots of these 'tangly trees' as I call them (I'm no horticulturist) which I just love and don't know how a child would resist climbing them.

Andrew was about 4 months old when we visited. We decided in advance to use the baby carrier rather than a pushchair and I'm glad we did. The formal gardens and vegetable gardens are pretty accessible, but beyond that there are some very steep paths that I wouldn't have risked with a pushchair. The map of the gardens does denote them as 'steep' or 'very steep' and it isn't lying! Some of the less formal areas are actually quite wild. The paths are wide and clear but our none all-terrain pushchair wouldn't have managed. When we were visiting the bluebells happened to be in bloom and the woodlands were truly magical.

As well as beautiful formal gardens and woodland walks there are a few animals to find on the way. You'll spot the chickens, geese and Shire horse easily. You'll have to be a bit more eagle-eyed to find the pigs (my favourite).

We did brave some of the steeper paths. I managed them fine despite being dreadfully unfit. I was 4 months post c-section. If you're even below average fitness, you should be able to cope. There are plenty of benches too. I'm glad my husband was carrying Andrew though.

We hadn't intended on going over the rope bridge, however the path we meant to take was closed that day and we didn't want to back track on ourselves. So over the rope bridge, baby and all, we went. Just as well we didn't bring the pushchair. I'm sure there are beautiful views from here, but I was concentrating too hard to notice them.

It being Cornwall, there are some beautifully exotic looking plants we don't get up north. I was particularly obsessed with the tree ferns. There are loads of them!

And you can't really talk about Heligan without mentioning the Mud Maid. There are a few sculptures dotted about the place, but she is the most famous. And very pretty she is too.

I would definitely recommend the Lost Gardens of Heligan for pretty much anyone. I saw people of every age there, and you can also bring your dog on a lead. There is also a very nice looking restaurant and a shop I could spend a dangerous amount of money in. Too much nice stuff in there! Heligan will probably become a regular feature of any future trips we make to Cornwall.

Going on holiday with a baby and all the STUFF!

We decided to go on a 3 night trip to Cornwall when baby Andrew was 4 months old. Pre-baby I had no idea just how much STUFF they need. I don't think we were being excessive, yet here is what we ended up taking. I've probably forgotten something too.

• Travel cot and mattress cover
• Spare mattress cover
• 2 x blanket
• Pushchair and car seat
• Rain cover for pushchair (definitely needed!)
• Baby carrier
• Cold water steriliser tub
• 6 x bottles
• 4 x little containers for milk powder
• Box of formula
• 6 x instant milk
• Milton sterilising tablets
• Approx 20 nappies
• Wipes
• Cotton balls
• Nappy bags
• Sudocrem
• Eczema cream
• Infacol
• Calpol
• Thermometer
• Changing bag
• Dummies x 3
• 4 x night sleep suits
• 3 x day time outfits
• 6 x vests
• One emergency outfit that lived in the changing bag
• Sunhat
• 3 x bibs
• 3 x muslins
• 2 x booties
• 1 rattle

And a small backpack each for mum and dad's clothes, toiletries etc.

The car, which isn't small, was completely rammed and I think we used pretty much everything we brought with us except the Calpol and thermometer (phew). How do people with two children manage? Hopefully it gets easier when they aren't relying on sterilised bottles of milk.

Anyway, a good time was had despite experiencing almost every kind of weather, until the way home when I started getting an upset stomach. Thankfully I managed to hold it together until we got home. Hurrah for easy access to buckets! I rather ruined the end of my holidays by being sick all evening. Meanwhile my superstar husband unpacked everything and took care of baby Andrew as I upchucked the last of my holiday meals out. What a champ!

Beautiful, British holiday weather.